Metal pleating machine

ABSTRACT

A pleating machine for metal strips having a set of rotary dies and drive gears therefor, a set of rotary folders and drive gears therefor and a floating idler gear connecting the rotary dies drive gears and rotary folders drive gears so as to permit the rotation of the rotary folders relative to the rotary dies without disassembling the machine.

1 Oct. 23, 1973 United States Patent [1 1 Narog A Smith et 72/187 Avakian......

Potdevin Smith....... 74/395 74/395 1 1 METAL PLEATING MACHINE [76] Inventor: Anthony Narog, 9902 Stonybrook Dr., Anaheim, Calif. Apr. 5-, 1971 Appl. No; 131,031

[22] Filed:

Primary ExaminerRichard J. Herbst Attorney Anthony Norog ABSTRACT V A pleating machine for metal strips having a set of ro- B2ld 53/04 [58] Field of Search...................... 74/395, 396, 397,

; 29 1573 C tary dies and drive gears therefor, a set of rotary folders and drive gears therefor and a floating idler gear connecting the rotary dies drive gears and rotary folders drive gears so as to'permit the rotation of the totary folders relative to the rotary dies without disas-' References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS R22,956 12/1947 3,318,128 5/1967 Rhodes.... 3,397,589 8/1968 Moore S e r u g i F g n i w a r D 6 e m m. m m a C m l e h t g .m 0 m e .s 777 00009 11 //l 224 777 Pmmninum m5 .766873 SHEET 1 UP 4 Anthony Narog,

ENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

PATENTEDnm 23 ms SHEET 2 OF 4 Anthony Norog,

INVENTOR BY. W 'QW% ATTORNEY.

PATENTEDDMB ma 3.756373 SHEET 3 [IF 4 Fig. 3.

Anthony Norog,

INVENTOR.

wafiwp ATTORNEY.

mzmwnm 23 ms 3 7 66; 8 73 SHEET UF 4 Fig 4.

Anthony Nclrog,

INVENTOR ark 52 ATTORNEY.

1 METAL PLEATING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION One of the common pieces of equipment utilized widely in connection with machinery and the operation thereof is heat exchange equipment wherein excess heat is transferred to the ambient air by passage of the air over the surface thereof adjacent to which a high temperature fluid such as water is circulated. Since the amount of heat transferred is proportional to the surface area of the heat exchanger, it is common to circulate the high temperature fluid through a series of parallel tubes between which extend a series of fins connected to the tubes. Thus by placing the tubes close together and attaching therebetween a series of small closely packed fins, a very large surface area is achieved for the transmission of heat from the high temperature fluid to the ambient air. The most common widely used example of such heat exchanger is the radiator used in connection with water cooled internal combustion engines used on most automobiles. In the automobile radiator, the. closely spaced parallel flat tubes circulating the engine cooling water have strips of metal pleated in a series of accordion pleats attached therebetween. Because of the large number of such pleated metal strips which are required in each automobile radiator and the need to produce such pleated metal strips economically and in high volume, substantial effort has been devoted over the years to developing metal pleating machines which would achieve such results. Early metal pleating machines such as il1ustrated in US. Pat. No. 1,704,321 issued on Mar. 5, 1929, simply used a pair of forming rollers through which the initially flat metal strip was passed to form pleats therein followed by a cutting die to cut the pleated strip in appropriate lengths. Subsequently, it was found that smaller more closely spaced pleats could be formed-by passing the initially pleated strip through formingdies which compressed and squeezed the pleatstogethersuch as illustrated in US. Pat. No. 2,071,584 issued onFeb. 23, 1937. However, as illustrated in the aforementioned patents, such metal pleating machines were quite complicated and. required time consuming, careful adjustment and operation which still frequently gave unpredictable results. Since in adthe flow of the pleated metal strip therebetween to such a degree that a stack of fins or pleats is finally forced through the resistance rollers in a spring like action resulting in a non-uniform flow of pleated metal strip and non-uniform pleats. More recent developments such as illustrated by US. Pat. No. 3,318,128 issued on May 9, 1967, achieves a more uniform pleated strip by following the forming operation with a restricting operation of the partially pleated metal strip to compress the fins and then with a folding operation wherein the pleats are engaged between the opposed teeth of a pair of ro tary folders so that the spacing between successive pleats is accurately controlled. As illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,128, such recent machines exhibit even greater complexity than the earlier metal pleating machines and encounter additional problems. Thus, by employing rotary folders it is essential that the pleated strip be engaged between the teeth of each folder. If the crest of one of the pleats contacts the teeth of the rotary folder, then dents are formed therein which damage the pleated metal strip so as to make it unusable for V radiator core. Consequently it is necessary to precisely dition to the increase in surface area, the transfer of heat in heat exchangers can be increased by increasing the turbulence of the ambient air flowing over the heat exchange surface, more recent metal pleating machines used for making radiator strips such as illustrated in US Pat. No. 3,228,367 issued Jan. 11, 1966, have cutand thereby causes the area between succeeding transverse rows to be arelatively weak portion of the strip. After such perforating operation, the metal pleating operation is commonly carried out as illustrated in US. Pat. No. 3,228,367by shaping dies followed by condensing or resistance rollers so that the strip which is initially formed into widely spaced pleats is subse-,

quently squeezed to form pleats having closer alignment. The utilization of such resistance rollers to complete the pleating operation results in substantial con-- trol problems since such rollers operate by restricting control the passage of the pleated metal strip through the metal pleating machine and the timing between the rotary folders and the preceding operations so that the pleated metal strip accurately and precisely engages the teeth of the rotary folders, i.e., the teeth of the rotary folders always are inserted in the successive valleys of the pleated strip and do not contact the adjoining crest. At present there is no satisfactory way of achiev ing such precise control of such metal pleating machine. In practice such control is achieved by a trail and error process of observing the pleated strip being damaged by the rotary folders, stopping the machine to cut off the damaged portion, starting the machine again and manually initiating the folding operation with the hope of achieving the proper coordination. Such practice necessarily results not only in time consuming adjustments and lost production time but also substantial waste of pleated metal strip which has to be discarded because of damage thereto.

In response to such problems of the present metal pleating machines particularly those used in forming radiator core strip, the object bf the present invention is an easily operated, simple metal pleating machine adapted to form uniform pleated metal strip inexpensively and at high speed. I

Still another object of the present. invention is a metal pleating machine adaptedto be adjusted with the metal strip being pleated in the machine without damage thereto and without disassembling the machine.

Still another object of the present invention is a metal pleating machine adapted to have its components relationship simply adjusted without disassembling the machine. i

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following de-' 'scription and drawings which are illustrative of a preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention involves a metal pleating machine having a set of rotary dies with a set of drive gears and adapted to form in the metal strip being pleated a series of spaced transverse rows of louvers and a set of rotary folders with a set of drive gears adapted to form in the metal strip being pleated a series of accordion pleats. Connecting the rotary dies drive gears and the rotary folders drive gears is a floating idler gear adapted to permit the rotation of the rotary folders relative to the rotary dies without disassembling the machine. 1

In order to facilitate an understanding of the present invention, reference will now be made to the appended drawings of a preferred specific embodiment of the present invention. Such drawings, like the preceding summary, should not be construed as limiting the present invention which is properly set forth in the appended claims- DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the metal pleating machine of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 taken along its lengthwise centerline.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 taken along the line 3-'-3 of FIG. 2.

. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a top view of the drive gear portion of the metal pleating machine shown in FIG. 1.

. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a metal strip illustrating the various operations performed by the pleating machine shown in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION As illustrated in FIGS. 1-6, the metal pleating machine 10 of the present invention comprises frame means 11, rotary dies means 30, rotary folders means 60 and cutting means 110. Frame means 11 has a base 12 on which are mounted vertical, parallel Walls 13 and 14. At one end of the frame means 11 are rotary dies means having a'first guide 31 composed ofa spaced pair of plates connected between the walls 13 and 14 and parallel to and spaced from the base 12 and adapted to receive therebetween a flat metal strip (Section A of FIG. 6) and direct the same between a set of upper and lower rotary ,dies 32 and 33 respectively. The rotary dies 32 and 33 are adaptedto form in the metal strip-being pleated a series of spaced transverse rows of louvers B1 by making shortlongitudinal slits B2 in the metal strip and offsetting the portion B3 of the metal strip adjacent thereto (Section B of FIG 6). The rotary dies 32 and 33 are maintained in relative position by alternate spacer disks 51 between the die disks 52 and biasing springs 53. The upper rotary die 32 is mounted on a shaft 34 which in turn is rotatably mounted between a first pair of opposed pillow blocks 35 and 36 by first pair of bearings 37 and 38 respectively. The pillow blocks 35 and 36 are slideably received in first slots 15 and 16 in the walls 13 and 14, respectively, which are closed by bolted end plates 17 and 18, respectively. Adjoining and beneath the upper rotary die 32 is the lower rotary die 33 which is mounted on a shaft 39 rotatably mounted between a second opposed pair of pillow blocks 40 and 41 by a second pair of bearings 42 and 43, respectively. The pillow blocks 40 and 41 are also slideably received in slots 15 and 16 respectively. The rotary dies means 30 has rotary dies drive gear means 44 which includes 21 dies main drive gear 45 mounted on the lower rotary die shaft 39 and driven by a power drive gear 46 attached to a drive shaft 47 which in turn is connected to a power source such as an electric motor (not shown). The dies main drive gear 45 is adapted to apply rotary motion to the lower rotary die drive shaft 39. Mounted on the shaft 39 adjacent to the main drive gear 45 is the lower die drive gear 48 which engages upper die drive gear 49 which is mounted on the shaft 34 adjacent the main drive gear 45. The lower die drive gear 48 and upper die drive gear 49 are adapted to transfer the rotary motion of the lower rotary die shaft 39 to the upper rotary die shaft 34. Also mounted on the lower rotary die shaft 39 is a die idler drive gear 50 engaged with a floating idler gear l00'and adapted to transmit the rotary motion of the shaft 39 to the floating idler gear 100.

Following the rotary dies means 30 are the rotary folders means including a second guide 61 adapted to receive the louvered metal strip and direct it between the upper and lower rotary folders 62 and 63, respectively. The second guide 61 includes a lower platen 93 and an upper platen 94, each having longitudinal grooves therein to receive louvers of the metal strip. The rotary folders 62 and 63 are adapted to form in the metal strip a series of accordion pleats C1 (Section C of FIG. 6). The upper rotary folder 62 includes a drum 64 from which extend spaced rows of spaced teeth 65. Each tooth 65 in a row of teeth is separated from an adjacent tooth 65 by a land 66. Each row of teeth 65 extends around the circumference of the drum 64 and is spaced axially along the drum 64 from adjoining rows of teeth 65 by channels 67. Similarly the lower rotary folder 63 has a drum 68 having spaced rows of spaced teeth 69 extending therefrom. The spaced teeth 69 in each row are separated by lands 70 with the row extending around the circumference of the drums 68. The spaced rows of spaced teeth 69 are axially spaced along the drum 68 and separated by channels 71. The rotary folders 62 and 63 are oriented so that the rows of teeth 65 of the upper rotary folder 62 are vertically aligned with the rows of spaced teeth 69 of the lower rotary folder 63.

As shown particularly in FIG. 4, the upper rotary folder 62 is mounted on a shaft 72 which is rotatably mounted between an opposed third pair of pillow blocks 73 and 74 by bearings 75 and 76, respectively. The third pair of pillow blocks 73 and 74 are slideably received in second slots 19 and 20, respectively, in the walls 13 and 14. The second slots 19 and 20 are closed by end plates 21 and 22, respectively, through which extend folder adjustment screws 77 and 78, respectively. The lower rotary folder 63 is mounted on a shaft 79 which is rotatably mounted between a fourth pair of opposed pillow blocks 80 and 81, respectively, by bearings 82 and 83, respectively. The fourth pair of opposed pillow blocks 80 and 81 are slideably received in the second slots 19 and 20 beneath the third pair of pillow blocks 73 and 74 and separated therefrom by springs 84 and 85. With such arrangement, by rotation of the adjustment screws 77 and 78 the spacing between the rotary folders 62 and 63 may be selectively set which in turn selectively sets the number of pleats per lineal inch in the metal strip being pleated. Thus, for example, by moving the rotary folders 62 and 63 closer together the angle which the side of the pleat make with the plane determined by the metal strip is increased, i.e., moves toward a vertical angle. Such increased angle, in turn, causes the successive pleats to befolded closer together and consequently increases their number per lineal inch. 7

The rotary folders means 60 has rotary folders drive gears means 86 which includes the folders main drive gear 87 which is mounted on the shaft 79 and adapted to transmit rotation from the floating idler gear 100 to the shaft 79. Also'mounted on the shaft 79 is a pair of spaced lower folder gears 88 and 89 which are positioned at opposite ends of the drum 68. Engaged with the lower folder gears 88 and 89 are the upper folder gears 90 and 91, respectively, which are positioned at each end of the drum 64. Thus, the rotation imparted to the shaft 79 by the folder main drive gear 87 is thereby transmitted to the lower rotary folder 63 and transmitted to the upper rotary folder 62 by the lower folder gears 88 and 89 and upper folder gears 90 and 91. Mounted on the lower folder shaft 79 on the opposite side of the machine 10 from the main folder drive gear 87 is the folder adjustment knob 92 adapted to manually rotate the lower folder shaft 79 and thereby rotate the folder main drive gear 87.

As indicated above, the floating idler gear 100 connects the rotary dies drive gear means 44 and the rotary folders drive gear means 86. More specifically, the floating idler gear 100 is vertically supported solely by resting in an engagement with the folders main drive gear 87 of the rotary folder drive gears means 86 and the die idler drive gear 50 of the rotary dies drive gear means 44. The dimetral pitch separation distance between the folders main drive gear 87 and die idler drive gear 50 is less than the pitch diameter of the floating idler gear 100 which permits upward displacement of the floating idler gear 100 but prevents downward displacement. The floating idler gear 100 is horizontally supported solely by the wall 13 of the frame 11 which adjoins its face 101 and the face 54 of the upper die drive gear 49 which adjoins the face 102 of thefloating metal pleating machine 10 and to not transmit said rotation when they rotary folders drive gear means 86 are independently rotated to move the metal strip forward through the metal pelating machine 10. Thus, if the drive shaft 47 is rotated in a clockwise direction (as shown in FIG. 1) the rotary dies drive gear means 44 are rotated so as to both move the metal strip forward through the metal pleating machine 10 and to rotate the idler gear 100 in a clockwise direction. Such clockwise rotation of the idler gear 100 in turn causes the rotary folder drive gear means 86 to .likewise'move the metal strip forward through the machine. However, if the folder adjustment knob 92 is rotated so as to rotate the lower folder shaft 79 in a counter-clockwise direction (as shown in FIG. 1) such rotation rotates the rotary folders drive gear means 86 independently to move a metal strip forward through the machine 10. Such rotation of the rotary folders drive gear means 86 imparts a counter-clockwise rotation in the folders main drive gear 87 (as viewed in FIG. 1) and thus imparts a clockwise rotation of the idler gear 106 which is not imparted to the die idler drive gear of the rotary dies drive gear means 44 but rather simply lifts the idler gear 100 and rides it into engagement with succeeding teeth on the die idler drive gear 50 in a clockwise direction.

Following the rotary folders means are cutting means llt) which include a third guide 111 which is adapted to receive the pleated louvered metal strip and direct it to the cutter 120. The third guide 111 includes a support plate 1 l2 and opposed L-shaped cover plates 113 having cover flanges 114 spaced from and parallel to the support plate 112 and separated by a gap 115. The cover plates 113 also include support walls 116 slideably supported by support plate 112 and positioned by pins 117 attached thereto and slideably inserted in apertures 118 in the walls 13 and 14. The pins 117 are adjustably locked into position by guide adjustment screws 119 in the walls 13 and 14. Such arrangement permits adjusting the spacing between the support walls 116 in accordance with the width of the pleated metal strip. The cutter 120 includes a cutting block 121 between the walls 13 and 14 and a guillotine 122 joined to guide block 123 which is slideably mounted in the end wall 23 between the side walls 13 and 14 by a dove tail track 124 and groove 125. The guillotine 122 is driven into successive cutting engage ments with the cutting'block 121 by a reciprocating drive rod 126 operated by any suitable means such as a reciprocating air cylinder controlled by a solenoid which in turn is controlled by the timer described below. The operation of the guillotine 122 is controlled by the rotation of the timer gear 127 rotated by the folders main drive gear 87. The rotation of the timer gear 127 is sensed by a timer (not shown) which is adapted to operate the cutting means 110 based on a selected degree of rotation of the timer gear 127 which, in turn, causes the pleated louvered metal strip to be cut into predetermined lengths. The timer is well known to the art and may be obrained from a variety of sources such as the Cyclo-Monitor manufactured by the Precision Products and Controls, Inc. of Tulsa, Okla. I

The operation of the metal pleating machine 10 is adapted to form a pleated louvered metal strip from a flat metal strip (as shown in FIG. 6) and to adjust the machine to achieve such result without damage to such metal strip and without disassembling the machine. Ini tially the metal strip is fed to the first guide 31 which directs it between the rotary dies 32 and 33 forming a series of space transverse rows of louvers therein. The

' louvered metal strip isthen directed by the second guide 61 between the rotary fin folders 62 and 63 with the folding operation initiated by first restricting manually the metal strip to form a foldin a flat portion of the metal strip. Such initially folded metal strip is then fed to the rotary fin folders 62 and 63 with the objective of having the opposed teeth and 69 of the upper rotary folder 62 and lower rotary folder 63 respectively, engaging successive valleys of the initially manually pleated metal strip. However, such precise adjustment is quite difficult to attain initially. Consequently, it fre- 33 by rotation of the folder adjustment knob 92 which rotates the rotary folders 62 and 63 without rotating the rotary dies 32 and 33 as hereinbefore described. By means of such adjustment the rotary folders may be rotated in small increments such as five degrees so that the teeth 65 and 69 engage successive valleys of the pleats and successive crests of the pleats engage the lands 66 and 70 between said teeth. After such adjustment of the rotary folders, the louvered metal strip is then pleated thereby so that the third'guide 111 receives a pleated metal strip between the cover flanges l 14 and support plate 1 l2 and directs it into the cutting means 110 which operates in a predetermined intervals to cut the pleated metal strip into pieces of a selected length. In addition; as noted above the spacing of the pleats may be selected by rotation of the adjustment screws 77 and 78.

It will be appreciated that many other specific embodiments of the present invention will be obvious to one skilled in the art in view of the disclosure of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. For example, the folder adjustment knob could be located on the rotary dies so that during adjustment the rotary dies are rotated and the rotary folders remain stationary. Similarly, the floating idler gear could be horizontally supported by a freely movable support arm attached to the frame.

There are many features in the present invention which clearly show the significant advance 'which the present invention achieves over the prior art. Consequently, only a few of the more outstanding features will be pointed out to illustrate the unexpected and unusual results obtained by the present invention. One feature of the present invention is a metal pleating machine having only rotary dies and rotary folders to transform a flat metal strip into a pleated louvered metal strip without requiring the additional metal forming operations usually required in such machines. Another feature of the present invention is a metal pleating machine adapted to have its rotary die and rotary folder relationship adjusted with the metal strip being pleated in the machine without damage thereto and without disassembling the machine. Still another feature of the present invention is a metal pleating machine having a free floating idler gear adapted to transmit rotation between the rotary dies drive gears and the rotary folders drive gearswhen the rotary dies drive gears are rotated to move the metal strip forward through the machine but not transmit such rotation when the rotary folder drive gears are independently rotated to move the metalstrip forward through the machine. Still another feature of the present invention is a metal pleating machine wherein the idler gear connecting the rotary dies drive gears and the rotary folders drive gears is vertically supported solely by one of the rotary folder drive gears and one of the rotary die drive gears. Still another feature of the present invention is a metal pleating machine wherein the idler gear connecting the rotary die drive gears and the rotary folder drive gears is horizontally supported solely by the frame in the machine and the face of one of the rotary die drive gears. Still another feature of the present invention is a metal pleating machine wherein the spacing of the pleats may be adjusted simply by adjusting the relative positions of the upper and lower rotary folders by rotation of the adjustment screws therefor.

It will be understood that the foregoing description and drawings are only illustrative of the present invention, and it is not intended that the invention be limited thereto. All substitutions, alterations and modifications of the present invention which come within the scope of the following claims or to which the present invention is readily susceptible without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure are considered part of the present invention.

1 claim:

1. An easily operated, simple pleating machine for metal strips adapted to have the relationship of its components adjusted with the metal strip being pleated in the machine without damage thereto and without disassembling the machine comprising:

a. a set of rotary dies adapted to form in the metal strip being pleated a series of spaced transverse rows of louvers, said rotary dies having a set of drive gears;

b. a set of rotary folders adapted to form in the metal strip being pleated a series of accordion pleats, said rotary folders having a set of drive gears; and

c. a floating idler gear connecting said rotary dies drive gears and said rotary folders drive gears and independent knob adjustment means for adjusting the rotation of the rotary folders relative to the rotary dies without disassembling the machine; said idler gear being vertically supported solely by resting on one of said rotary folders drive gears and one of said rotary dies drive gears and horizontally supported solely by the frame of said machine and the face of one of said rotary'dies drive gears and said idler gear being adapted to transmit rotation between the rotary dies drive gears and the rotary folders drive gears when the rotary dies drive gears are rotated tomove a metal strip forward through said machine and not to transmit said rotation when the rotary folders drive gears are independently rotated to move a metal strip forward through said machine. i 

1. An easily operated, simple pleating machine for metal strips adapted to have the relationship of its components adjusted with the metal strip being pleated in the machine without damage thereto and without disassembling the machine comprising: a. a set of rotary dies adapted to form in the metal strip being pleated a series of spaced transverse rows of louvers, said rotary dies having a set of drive gears; b. a set of rotary folders adapted to form in the metal strip being pleated a series of accordion pleats, said rotary folders having a set of drive gears; and c. a floating idler gear connecting said rotary dies drive gears and said rotary folders drive gears and independent knob adjustment means for adjusting the rotation of the rotary folders relative to the rotary dies without disassembling the machine; said idler gear being vertically supported solely by resting on one of said rotary folders drive gears and one of said rotary dies drive gears and horizontally supported solely by the frame of said machine and the face of one of said rotary dies drive gears and said idler gear being adapted to transmit rotation between the rotary dies drive gears and the rotary folders drive gears when the rotary dies drive gears are rotated to move a metal strip forward through said machine and not to transmit said rotation when the rotary folders drive gears are independently rotated to move a metal strip forward through said machine. 